


The Taste Dreams Realized Leave Behind

by stillskies



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, X/1999
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-04
Updated: 2012-03-04
Packaged: 2017-11-01 02:26:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/350933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stillskies/pseuds/stillskies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seishirou arrives in Tokyo, Japan. Subaru is wary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Taste Dreams Realized Leave Behind

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted 03-06-2007.

Death clings like bile to his tongue and sakura scatters like ashes to the wind. He jerks from the other’s grasp, stumbling backwards in an attempt to create space, distance. The man stands there, gaze steady and assessing, and Subaru stares back, eyes just as steady and unseeing as the eyes that flash through his mind.

This man’s gaze is full of life, and Subaru thinks that this man is nothing like the one from his own world. This man is alive, and the scent of death is dull, nothing like the vivid tang of fading life he is used to.

 _I wonder,_ the man begins, _is there a world where Subaru-kun and I are not connected?_

The question hangs in the air between them, heavy and oppressive as time slowly ticks away. Subaru takes a deep breath; it is only then that he realizes he is shaking.

 _Who says that we’re connected in this one?_ he questions in response, not wanting to dwell too closely on the answer that the other man’s question could illicit. He remembers that woman smiling sadly at him, her finger petal soft against his cheek as she whispers sorrowful words of a destiny that he cannot escape, of worlds where he exists but knows nothing of and other fates he will not experience.

The man looks at him closely, as if considering his next words. _There is a red string that ties my soul to his,_ the man says cheerfully. _If there is an incarnation of my soul here, surely it would be connected to yours._

Subaru closes his eyes, willing himself to ignore the cadence of the familiar voice, to end the conversation and turn away. Still, there are things that he is not strong enough to walk away from, and the man in front him is one he never could deny.

 _Then why ask?_ Subaru rejoins, careful to keep his voice steady. It would not do to appear weak in front of this man, he knows.

His question is met with a smile and a nod of approval. There is nothing left to say as the man turns away from him, though it is hard to hold still, to not rush forward and cling like he so desperately wishes to do. Instead, he watches as the man holds a feather in the palm of his hand and calls forth a portal.

There is no pause or glance back before he disappears from one world to the next, and Subaru watches as despair he’d thought long buried crashes over him again, drowning him with the weight of sorrows long since passed.


End file.
